


When Gamers Collide

by ZimsMostLoyalServant



Category: Invader Zim
Genre: Canon - Comics & Cartoon Combination, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Gen, Invader Zim comic series, Post-Invader Zim: Enter the Florpus, alternate universes meet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-29
Updated: 2020-01-29
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:27:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,100
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22470106
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ZimsMostLoyalServant/pseuds/ZimsMostLoyalServant
Summary: An accident leaves Gaz talking to herself, in a rather literal sense.
Relationships: Dib & Gaz (Invader Zim)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 14





	When Gamers Collide

**Author's Note:**

> Hello everyone, and welcome to another side project I've been looking forward to doing for some time now. Specifically, since shortly after Enter the Florpus came out, when I saw a piece of fanart on DA featuring the original series and comic/movie versions of Gaz interacting with each other. This idea was sparked from that picture, and I've been wanting to do it for months, but other stuff kept coming up. But it's here now, and I hope you all enjoy it.
> 
> Before going forward, a quick note. While I'm aware that the movie and comics are clearly in different continuities, since I want to reference both I'm going to do what I did in Ruby Pair and set this story in a merged universe where ETF takes place instead of Issues 1 and 2, and that all the other comics followed afterwards. It won't be that big a deal, I just wanted to get that out of the way.
> 
> Okay, all that done, read on!

It was another normal summer day at the home of the Membrane family. Which for Gaz, meant that she was sleeping in as long as possible, cherishing the break from having to go to that skool full of morons and put up with their stupidity every day. Plus, it lessened her chance of having to interact with Dib first thing in the morning, as he in turn took advantage of the summer break to increase his surveillance on Zim (thankfully outside the house, so he wouldn't turn into another gross chair blob).

However, eventually her stomach's rumbling woke her up. Stretching and yawning her way into consciousness, Gaz rubbed the sleep from her eyes before hopping out of her bed. Quickly going through her morning routine, she was soon dressed and heading downstairs to the kitchen, knowing she'd have it to herself with Dib off stalking Zim and their father already at work over at his labs. Well, _mostly_ to herself…

"Duh, good morning sweetie!" Clembrane greeted from where he was standing next to the kitchen counter, stirring up yet another bowl of pudding. Foodio 3000 stood nearby, watching with as much pained chagrin as a robot could as his kitchen was violated for the umpteenth time by his creator's flawed clone.

"Yeah, morning 'Dad'," Gaz responded automatically, as she sat down at the table and prepared to go through what had become a daily ritual, "Should I even bother asking what's for breakfast?"

"I have prepared waffles for you, Gazlene," Foodio said, sounding happy at fulfilling his purpose, pulling a plate of fresh waffles out of his chest oven and placing them on the table in front of her.

"And here's some pudding ta go with 'em!" Clembrane added happily, plopping a bowl on the table next to the plate, earning grimaces from both girl and robot.

"Gee, thanks," Gaz muttered, glad that he had at least been trained to a point that he kept the pudding separate from the rest of the food. And as Clembrane turned back to the counter, she quickly slid the bowl over to Foodio, who shoved it into his oven and incinerated it. Upon seeing that it was safely disposed of, Gaz sighed in relief and dug into her actual food.

This was a routine the whole family had gotten used to as part of coping with having Clembrane around. Personally, Gaz didn't know why her father didn't just vaporize the damn thing (what was the point of having cool laser-shooting robot arms if you didn't use them?), but she supposed that she could put up with it until Clembrane melted into goo or something. After all, he was made by Zim, so it was likely he wasn't exactly built to last.

"By the way, sweetie," Clembrane said, regaining Gaz's attention, "The fake other me said to tell you that he's having some stuff delivered from the corporate lab to the home lab later today."

"Fine, I'll keep an eye out for it," she replied, knowing that she couldn't trust the pudding-obsessed clone with that.

"Okay. I'm gonna make more pudding for da delivery guys!" Clembrane said, unknowingly proving her point.

Shaking her head, Gaz blocked out Clembrane and focused on her food and plans for the day.

XXXXXXX

A few hours later, Gaz sat on the couch, her game system plugged into the TV and set to her World of Blarghcraft account. Feet planted atop the coffee table, she leaned back against the cushions, fully absorbed in carving her way across a virtual wasteland of monsters and magic. Eventually, though, she was pulled from her immersion as the doorbell rang.

"Grr, they're lucky I'm not in the middle of a dungeon boss fight," she grumbled, pausing the game and getting up to walk to the door. Pulling it open, she was greeted by the sight of several people in Membrane Labs-issued coveralls, handling trolleys and push-carts loaded down with boxes of equipment.

"Hi, we're here to-" one of them started to say, only for Gaz to hold up a hand to cut him off.

"I know. Just drop the stuff off in the basement quick and get out of here," she said flatly. Her father's employees blinked at that, but shrugged and went to work carrying everything inside.

Ignoring them, Gaz returned to her game, blocking out everything around her as all the equipment was carried down to the basement lab. She barely even registered it when, a short while later, the workers finished up and left, aside from silently basking in the relief of now having the house to herself again.

This continued for another couple of hours, until she took a lunch break. And since she didn't feel like having to work around the pudding problem again, she left the house and went to Bloaty's instead. And when she returned to the house afterwards, she decided to hold off on the console to instead spend some time on her Game Slave. But it was here that she hit a snag, as she found that the gaming device's batteries were almost dead.

"Well that figures," she muttered in annoyance, which only grew as she failed to find any fresh batteries in the kitchen drawers.

"I swear, if Dib used them all up for his stupid spy cameras…" she started to threaten on instinct, before a thought occurred to her, "Hmm, does Dad keep any spares in his lab? There's got to be something he uses down there that's not powered by an anti-matter reactor or whatever."

Holding the Game Slave in one hand, Gaz made her way downstairs into the lab basement, which was now packed with the boxes of newly arrived equipment, several of which had already been unpacked in preparation for the Professor making immediate use of their contents. She ignored all this, though, instead making her way towards a desk, which she began rifling through in search of batteries.

Finally finding some, she popped a pair into the Game Slave and pocketed a few others just to be safe, then turned to make her way back to the stairs. However, she paused as she spotted one of the devices that had been pulled out of its box and placed on a table. It was a large rectangular frame roughly the size of an old box TV, with a keyboard attached to the base of it. Curiosity piqued by the oddly archaic look of the machine, Gaz walked over to take a closer look at it, and spotted a folder lying atop the desk next to it. Grabbing it, she briefly noted that it was marked "Project: Looking Glass" before flipping it open to skim through its contents.

"Blah blah, quantum mechanics, blah blah, zero point energy, blah blah… viewing alternate universes?" she muttered as she read the file, arching an eyebrow at that last point, "Huh, I wonder if this is related to that portal machine he made for me that let me take Dib prisoner in that gamer universe? Probably a prototype or something."

Now slightly more interested, Gaz kept reading the file, paying more attention to the details now. It seemed that this device, a Quantum Mirror as it was called, while related to the one she'd use to find and conquer the gamer universe, wasn't a prototype so much as it was a refinement. Rather than just punching holes into random other universes, it instead acted as an inter-dimensional spyglass, allowing the user to safely view those other universes without having to physically enter them. However, it was suffering from difficulties in fine-tuning it enough to stay focused on a single universe at a time without opening a portal, thereby defeating the entire purpose of the thing in the first place.

"Yeah, I can why that would be a problem," she mused, before shrugging it off as not _her_ problem. Setting the folder back on the table, she turned to go, only to stop, realizing her curiosity wasn't completely satisfied quite yet.

"Hmm, should I use this to check in on the gamer 'verse, now that I'm thinking about it?" she thought aloud, rubbing her chin as she considered it, "I did kinda just up and abandon it after I was done teaching Dib a lesson. I should probably check to make sure everything's still running smoothly over there."

Deciding there was no harm, and that it might be a fun diversion, Gaz turned back to the Quantum Mirror and tapped a button on the keypad. The device hummed to life, screen flickering into static and bouncing between various intense colors. Frowning, Gaz leaned forward and examined the controls more closely.

"Hmph, how do I work this thing? Do I just type in a description of the universe I want? Or are there coordinates or some-"

"Duh, hi honey!"

"Gah!" Gaz shouted in surprise, jumping at the sudden voice. Spinning around, she found herself looking up at Clembrane, who was smiling obliviously down at her, still stirring a bowl of pudding.

"Don't do that! …Er, dad," she snapped at him, before remembering to quickly add the title. She didn't need one of his tantrums right now.

"Sorry, sweetie, I didn't mean to scare you, I just wanted to see if you wanted more pudding," Clembrane said, looking around, "So what are you doing looking at all of Fake Me's stuff?"

"I was just curious about some of it," she replied with a shrug, gesturing to the Quantum Mirror, "And I was trying to get this one to work, so if you don't mind…"

"Oh, sure thing, I'll help!" Clembrane said cheerfully, completely misunderstanding the comment. Gaz's eyes widened in mild alarm as she heard that, immediately imagining the kind of chaos that the moronic clone could inadvertently cause.

"Uh, that's really not-" she started to say, only for him to completely ignore her.

"It's no problem, honey," Clembrane said, lightly shoving her aside to approach the device, "After all, if I know one thing, it's that pudding solves everything!"

And before Gaz could do anything to stop him, Clembrane scooped out a spoonful of pudding from his bowl and slapped it onto the Quantum Mirror, splattering it all over the keyboard and the main device. Gaz grimaced at the mess, wondering if she'd be able to convince her father it was solely Clembrane's fault and not in any way hers… and then the machine started sparking, the flashing lights on the screen growing in brightness and speed.

"What the…?"

_BOOM!_

With a sound like an explosion, a burst of energy shot out of the Quantum Mirror, the shockwave sending Gaz and Clembrane flying. While the clone ended up crashing into a pile of boxes which then collapsed onto him, burying him under heavy equipment, Gaz slammed into a wall and then fell to the floor. Stunned from the impact, she was too disoriented to notice as all that released energy formed a blazing halo around the Mirror's screen. At least, until air started sucking into the screen like a vacuum.

"Wha… crap!" Gaz yelled as her head cleared enough to note that everything not nailed down was being dragged towards the Mirror — including her.

Clawing desperately for purchase on the floor, Gaz was slowly dragged across the room, the pull of the air growing stronger the further she went. Within a minute she was at the foot of the table the Mirror was atop of, clutching a table leg with a death grip, as her lower half was pulled into the air and towards the malfunctioning device.

"This is such bull-AAAAHHH!" she yelled, trailing off into a wordless scream as her grip slipped and she went flying through the remaining few feet of air to slam into the screen. And rather than smashing into the glass, it gave way beneath her like a liquid, and before she could even process this or try to grab hold of the rim of the device, she slipped through the screen and vanished from sight.

As if in response to this turn of events, the energy around the Quantum Mirror finally subsided, the device itself shutting down with a dying hum. Soon, the only sign that anything had happened was the mess of knocked-over equipment still pinning Clembrane to the floor as he blinked stupidly and looked around in confusion.

"Uh, honey?" he called out, "Where'd you go?"

When no answer came, Clembrane shrugged, and quickly pulled himself out from under the equipment, effortlessly pushing the heavy machinery aside. Brushing himself off and deciding that whatever had just happened wasn't important, he picked up his bowl and walked back upstairs to make more pudding.

XXXXXXX

Gaz flew down a tunnel of lights that were somehow both kaleidoscopic and yet absent of all color. She felt as if her body was being simultaneously compressed into a tiny ball and stretched out to its limits. She was pretty sure she was screaming, but she couldn't hear a sound. Her mind was being overwhelmed with stimulus, and yet at the same time felt like it was being put through sensory deprivation.

This excruciating series of contradictions went on for what felt like an eternity, and then ended as soon as it began. Not that that was much of an improvement, as Gaz's disoriented brain belatedly latched onto the fact that she was in midair and falling, only realizing it as she was a few yards above the ground. She barely had time to brace herself before she hit the rocky surface, bouncing for a few moments afterwards before coming to a stop in an undignified heap, face down in the dirt.

Gaz lay there for a few minutes, groaning as her mind pieced itself back together from whatever had just happened to her. Finally, however, she managed to regain enough coherence to push herself up and get back on her feet. Brushing her clothes off and shaking her head to clear it, she looked around to see where she was, and arched an eyebrow at her surroundings — she was standing on a rocky field that stretched as far as the eye could see, underneath a sky that was a full spectrum of shifting colors which made her eyes ache to look at.

"Where the hell am I?" she muttered, only to blink in surprise as the sound hit her ears. It sounded like what she just said was echoing, but coming from right behind her…? Turning around to face the source of the echo, her eyes widened in shock at what was standing a few feet behind her — namely, herself.

To be more specific, standing there staring at Gaz in what appeared to be an equal amount of shock, was a perfect copy of herself. Or nearly perfect, anyway; physically speaking, the other Gaz was identical to the point of practically being a mirror image, but the clothes were completely different. Instead of the black skirt and blue shirt with an 8-bit bunny skull on it that she'd been wearing as her main look for a while now, this duplicate was still wearing the black dress, red-pink leggings, and skull necklace that used to be her primary outfit.

Gaz and her lookalike stared at each other for a few moments, before snapping out of it. Mirroring each other, they crossed their arms and gave each other appraising looks, frowning in thoughtful silence.

"So," the Gaz in the black dress eventually said, "Is this time travel, or some kind of alternate universe thing?"

"Well, we look exactly the same age, but I haven't worn that outfit in over a year, so my money's on alternate universe," the Gaz in the blue shirt replied, recalling how the malfunction of the Quantum Mirror had been what had gotten her here.

"Yeah, speaking of which, what's up with that? You look like a wannabe punk rocker."

"Maybe, but I got sick of people assuming I'm a Goth or emo just 'cause I like black."

"Hmph, fair enough."

There was another moment of silence, neither version of Gaz sure where to take the conversation from there, and instead just looking around at their barren surroundings. Eventually, though, the Gaz in the blue shirt chose to break the silence this time.

"So, any idea how you got here?" she asked.

"Meh, one of Zim and Dib's stupid fights," the other Gaz replied, "I think they were fighting over some kind of cosmic energy orb or something? I dunno, I've gotten to a point where I just block out anything Dib says."

"I make my Dib pay me if he actually wants me to listen."

"Heh, I'll have to consider that. Anyway, next thing I know, there's this explosion, I get sucked through this weird light tunnel, and I'm here talking to myself in a more literal way than Dib does. What about you?"

"I was checking out an interdimensional mirror device in Dad's lab, and Clembrane screwed it up-"

"Clembrane?" the other Gaz interrupted, arching an eyebrow.

"Failed clone of Dad made by Zim. Looks like a big orange fish, dumb as a post, obsessed with pudding."

"Ah. We don't have one of those."

"Lucky you, he's a pain in the ass. And like I was saying, it's his fault I'm here, since he got his pudding all over that machine, which malfunctioned, sucked me in, and dumped me here."

The Gaz in the black dress made a noise of acknowledgement at that, but didn't otherwise say anything, allowing another silence to settle in. After a few moments of this, the Gaz in the blue shirt — seeking to break the tedium — idly picked up a rock and tossed it towards the horizon. Then to the surprise of both girls, another rock came flying over the horizon from the opposite direction, clattering across the ground to come to a stop at their feet.

"What the…?" both of them muttered, blinking as they looked back and forth between the rock and both horizons.

"You don't think?" the Gaz in black said, arching an eyebrow at her counterpart.

"Hang on, let me check this out," the Gaz in blue responded, before walking towards the horizon. Her other self watched her go until she disappeared over the horizon, then turned around in time to see her emerge back into sight, both of them frowning deeply as they realized the implications of this.

"Seriously? This place is barely any bigger than our house?" Gaz-in-black grumbled angrily.

"Must be a pocket dimension," Gaz-in-blue thought out loud, "Like in _Planet of Doomcraft_ , or _Super Plastic Plumber_ , or-"

"-Or _Old Scrolls_ , or _Empire Organs_ or a million other games, yeah, I get it," her counterpart cut her off, "So, what are we supposed to do about it?"

"Grr, I don't know, there's nothing here to work with!" the Gaz in the skirt said, waving her hands angrily for a moment before crossing her arms with a huff, "Great. So basically we're stuck here hoping that this thing wears off on its own, or that our versions of Dad or Dib realize what's happened and get us back."

"Ugh, so that's going to be a long wait… you manage to bring your Game Slave along with you?"

"Yep. You?"

"Yeah. So, wanna play something to pass the time?"

XXXXXXX

Some time later, Blue-Gaz and Black-Gaz (as they'd taken to mentally referring to each other for the sake of enough differentiation to keep their brains from tying into knots) were sitting with their backs against a particularly large boulder, Games Slaves hooked up for a multiplayer game. And while they were slashing through vampire pigs, they had also taken time to trade notes on their respective universes.

"So, Zim came up with a plan that actually _worked?_ " Black-Gaz asked in disbelief.

"Yeah, I was surprised too," Blue-Gaz admitted with a shrug, "I mean, it would have ended up destroying him too if Dad hadn't managed to undo it in the end, but still, he came a lot closer to outright winning than he ever has before. Of course, since then he's gone back to totally sucking at everything — I mean, some of his biggest plans lately have involved stuff like covering Dib's head in birdseed so birds will attack him, or selling people as pillow stuffing in alien retail stores, and he can't even pull those off."

"Yeah, that sounds about right," Black-Gaz snorted, even as she had her character cut a swath through a horde of vampire pigs, Blue-Gaz's character attacking them from behind when they turned to try and follow her counterpart, "Huh. I'm not usually one for team playing, but this is working out pretty well."

"Really? You don't do any MMORPGs?" Blue-Gaz asked, genuinely surprised, "I'm team leader on a bunch of them."

"I play them, I just don't bother with teams," Black-Gaz replied, "Dealing with a bunch of whiners too stupid to follow instructions just seems like it would detract from the experience."

"Hmph, suit yourself. Kinda limiting your options, though, considering so many campaigns are only open to teams."

"Whatever. Not worth the headache."

The two settled into another silence, focusing on their game. A few minutes later, however, both their stomachs grumbled almost in sync, causing them to pause the game with matching looks of annoyance.

"Gah, what's taking those idiots so long to fix this?!" Black-Gaz growled, "I don't know about your Dib, but mine's usually not _this_ slow to fix his messes!"

"What, you didn't have to go through the Pig-Mouth curse mess?" Blue-Gaz asked sardonically, causing her counterpart to shudder.

"Oh God, don't remind me of that," she muttered, "But I guess it _did_ take him forever to figure out how to cure me then, so I shouldn't be too surprised he's taking a while now. Still, he'd better hurry up, or I'll make him pay."

"I'd do that to my Dib too, but unfortunately, for once this isn't something I can blame on him," Blue-Gaz muttered.

"So? Beat him up anyway, it'll make you feel better," Black-Gaz said, standing up and stretching the kinks out of her back.

"Tempting, but I like to at least have a reason to doom him," Blue-Gaz waved off the suggestion, "It's easier to not feel guilty about what Dad would think if he happened to find out."

"Oh please. If your version of Dad is anything like mine, you could vaporize Dib right in front of him and he wouldn't even notice," Black-Gaz snorted.

"Well, that used to be true, but he's been better about that lately," Blue-Gaz said, "Still pretty self-absorbed about his work, but he actually spends more time at home and remembers we exist."

"Goodie for you," Black-Gaz grumbled, crossing her arms as a tone of jealous annoyance entered her voice, "But he probably still wouldn't care what you did."

"I dunno, he seemed pretty concerned that time I accidentally fed Dib those nanobots that would have made his head explode if he got sad," Blue-Gaz replied with a shrug.

"When you did what now?" Black-Gaz asked, one eye cracking open to stare at her in confusion.

"Well, I didn't _know_ what was in that vial when I gave it to him!" Blue-Gaz snapped defensively, "I thought it would turn him into a lizard or give him a third arm or something! How was I supposed to know I might make him blow up?"

"Why didn't you?" Black-Gaz asked.

"Huh?"

"Why didn't you just let him blow up? I know I would in that situation — definitely would have made things more peaceful in the long run."

"…You're kidding, right?" Blue-Gaz asked in disbelief.

"Nope. And what's with that look?" Black-Gaz responded with a frown, as she noticed how her counterpart was staring at her.

"Are you crazy?" Blue-Gaz demanded incredulously, "I mean, yeah, Dib's annoying, and he never shuts up, and drags me into stuff even when it's obvious I'm not interested, and I need an AR helmet making him look like a monkey just to interact with him sometimes, and sure, I once even dragged him into a dimension ruled by gamers and tortured him with virtual reality simulations of games just to get a point across to him, but I'm not going to let him die! He's still my brother and I care about him!"

"Oh, _please_ cut the sentimental garbage," Black-Gaz said, miming that she was gagging, "Are you really this sappy normally? I thought you were a version of _me_ , a badass who doesn't need anyone, but apparently you're just another whining loser who acts tough but deep down is a pathetic sad sack."

"Is that right?" Blue-Gaz asked, slowly and dangerously, as she got to her feet and glared at her other self, "Well, let me tell you something — I might give everyone around me a tough time to make sure they mind their own business and don't bother me, but I'm not some kind of heartless sociopath, you nutjob."

"Did you just call me crazy?" Black-Gaz growled, matching her counterpart's glare, "You think I'm going to take that from some wimp just because she's got my face?"

"Wimp?" Blue-Gaz growled back, "I'm a wimp? How's that?"

"If you were _really_ tough, you wouldn't need anyone else," Black-Gaz sneered, "Instead, not only do you say all that emotional crap about Dib, of all people, you don't even have the guts to be a proper gamer and rely on your own skills, instead of letting a bunch of poser noobs do all the work for you. And that's just pathetic."

"Hey, first of all, I pull all the weight in my clans, the others are just decoys and extra-when-necessary muscle," Blue-Gaz snapped, "And actually caring about my family, however messed up they are, isn't something I'm ashamed of, let alone something I'm going to be criticized about by someone who's apparently embracing every Goth cliche there is. Seriously, do you still dress like that because you actually like the fashion, or do you just feel like it somehow justifies you having the attitude of a toxic waste dump?"

"You expect me to take fashion advice from you?" Black-Gaz spat, "When I called you a 'wannabe punk rocker', I was being polite. You look more like some little kid playing dress up as what they think someone tough looks like. I mean, who our age walks around with a _bunny_ on their shirt?"

"It's a bunny _skull_."

"A bunny skull is still a _bunny_ , and you're wearing it front and center. You look like a bitch."

"You _are_ a bitch!"

That seemed to be the breaking point. With a snarl, Black-Gaz threw herself at Blue-Gaz, fist swinging for her counterpart's face. Blue-Gaz dodged, letting the fist fly over her shoulder, then grabbed Black-Gaz's arm to pull her closer and slam a knee into her stomach before she could react. Then, with Black-Gaz winded and disoriented, Blue-Gaz flipped her over her shoulder to hit the ground behind her with a thud.

Blue-Gaz smirked at the sound, only to yelp as Black-Gaz recovered faster than she anticipated, grab her by ankles and yank hard, causing her to fall to the ground as well. She tried to scramble back to her feet, but Black-Gaz was faster, lashing out with a kick to the side that knocked over onto her back. And then, before she could even fully register that, Black-Gaz was straddling her and began punching her in the face repeatedly.

Blue-Gaz grunted in pain and, unable to think of anything else in her condition, grabbed a handful of dirt in one hand and tossed it up into Black-Gaz's face. As Black-Gaz gagged and rubbed at her stinging eyes, Blue-Gaz grabbed a nearby rock and swung it up, clipping Black-Gaz in the side of the head. Black-Gaz was sent stumbling back, allowing Blue-Gaz to get back to her feet; with a growl, she threw the rock, aiming for Black-Gaz's head again, only for her to dodge and leap at Blue-Gaz again, tackling her. Blue-Gaz grunted in pain as she slammed against the boulder, but managed to grab ahold of Black-Gaz, and throw both of them back the way they came. Gripping tightly to each other, they fell to the ground, clawing, punching, kicking, and even biting at each other.

Neither was thinking clearly at this point, they just desperately wanted to doom each other — in Black-Gaz's eyes, Blue-Gaz was a weak imitation that made a mockery of her, while to Blue-Gaz's view, Black-Gaz was all the bad parts of herself she tried not to dwell on magnified. The grudging, really self-praising, respect for each other they'd started with was gone, leaving just their anger at the insults that had been flung, as well as the mounting frustration at the situation they were stuck in, all of which had just found a readily available way to be vented.

This rather pointless fight went on for some time, before finally both versions of Gaz were left slumped on the ground, disheveled, bruised, and groaning. Both managed to slowly and painfully push themselves up into sitting positions, but were too exhausted to do anything other than glare at each other intensely.

"That all you got, wimp?" Black-Gaz spat, a tooth flying out with the spittle.

"You're one to talk, bitch, you can't stand up either," Blue-Gaz shot back, with a death glare from the one eye not swollen shut.

"Just give me a minute to catch my breath, and I'll feed you that stupid shirt."

"Yeah? Well, I'll strangle you with that dumb necklace which isn't nearly as edgy and cool as you still think it is."

"You wish! I'll-"

"Enough!" a loud voice suddenly shouted. Both girls blinked in surprise at that and looked up towards its source. And then they stared in confusion at the sight of the speaker — a giant brain wearing a red hoodie, with a tuft of brown hair poking out from under the hood, was floating in the air above them.

"…What the hell are you supposed to be?" Black-Gaz asked flatly after a moment, taking the words out of Blue-Gaz's mouth.

"I am the Recap Brain, the Guardian that can recap all the multiple multiverses!" the brain proclaimed, somehow waving the sleeves of its hoodie despite not having arms, "And I am here to resolve the cosmic mistakes that have brought you both here!"

"You couldn't have done that sooner?" Blue-Gaz asked crossly, "You know, _before_ we beat the crap out of each other?"

"The accidents that dragged the two of you out of your respective universes and deposited you in this pocket dimension punched holes through the quantum fabric of the multiverse," Recap Brain responded, "I needed to undo all that damage before I could even attempt to return you to your own worlds. Believe me, there is no other reason I'd allow a cross-dimensional meeting like this to carry on for so long."

"Then what's with the popcorn?" Blue-Gaz asked, pointing to the bag of popcorn floating next to the brain, "Were you… were you _enjoying_ watching us fight?"

"…No," Recap Brain said, quickly tossing aside the bag to disappear into the cosmic void surrounding the three of them, "Anyway, now that I've fixed all the damage that was definitely the only reason I couldn't intervene before, I can now send you back where you belong."

"Good, hurry up so that I don't have to spend another minute around this poser," Black-Gaz snapped, gesturing at her counterpart, who only snorted in derision.

"Yes, yes, just a moment," Recap Brain replied. Waving its sleeves, it caused a glowing circle to appear in the air before them, revealing an image of another version of Gaz… wearing a pink princess dress and smiling brightly as she had a tea party with several stuffed animals.

"GAH! What the hell is that?!" Blue-Gaz exclaimed in disgust.

"It's making my eyes burn!" Black-Gaz shouted, holding her hands up protectively in front of her face.

"Whoops, sorry, got the 'Everyone is Nice' universe by mistake. Let me fix that," Recap Brain said. Waving its sleeves some more, it caused the circle to disappear and be replaced with several more in a line, which it started going through, "Let's see here. Fantasy universe, superhero Zim universe, musical universe, bean universe, giant trash hobos universe, giant trash hobos with monkey hats universe, the Zimvoid — I really should do something about that mess one of these days…"

"Get on with it!" both girls shouted together, not even bothering to glare at each other afterwards.

"Fine, fine… here we go, you in the black dress, you're up first. Pass through the portal when ready," Recap Brain, raising a circle in front of Black-Gaz, showing a knocked-out and charred Dib and Zim lying next to a smoking crater, while GIR sat nearby cooking weenies over one of the numerous fires dotting the street they were all on.

"Of course that moron's been unconscious this whole time. Well, I'm pounding his big head in when I get back," Black-Gaz muttered, before shooting a dirty look at her counterpart, "Whereas I'm guessing you're going to get all teary-eyed and watch a chick-flick with your Dib?"

"At least I won't be miserable and alone," Blue-Gaz shot back, "Now get the hell out of here before I kick your ass again."

With a final glare, and an extended middle finger for good measure, Black-Gaz turned her back and marched towards the portal, walking into it without a moment's hesitation and vanishing in a burst of light.

"Good riddance," Gaz said as she watched her black-clad copy disappear, the portal she'd gone through shifting away and being replaced with one depicting her father's lab, the charred and pudding-covered Quantum Mirror prominently displayed.

"Now it's your turn," Recap Brain stated, "And then the balance of the multiverse will be restored-"

"Whatever, I don't care," Gaz stated flatly. Not giving the floating brain another glance, she marched into the portal, also vanishing in another burst of light.

"…So, she's better than the other one, but still definitely not a nice person," Recap Brain mused, before somehow shrugging without shoulders, "Oh well, not my problem. Now, what's happening with that Zimvoid?"

With that, Recap Brain floated off into the cosmic void, looking for more universes to observe.

XXXXXXX

After another mind-breaking trip through a tunnel of light, Gaz found herself shooting out of the Quantum Mirror to slam into a wall of her father's lab. Sliding to the floor with a grumbled comment on once again hitting that wall, she sat there in a heap for a few moments before pulling herself to her feet.

Rubbing her head, she looked around at the lab, still a mess from the Mirror's malfunction. Deciding she was in no mood to deal with this right now, she turned and walked out of the lab, heading back up to the main floor of the house.

"Duh, hi sweetie!" Clembrane said, spotting her through the kitchen doorway, "Ooh, you don't look so good. Want some pudding to make yourself feel better?"

"Not right now," Gaz replied, her mood no more ready to deal with Clembrane than with the mess in the basement; in fact, she was pretty sure she'd just kill two birds with one stone and blame him for the state of the lab. That would probably save her some trouble in the long run.

"I'm just going to my room to lie down," she said, not bothering to pay attention to anything Clembrane might say in response.

Making her way upstairs, Gaz detoured for a moment to retrieve a First Aid kit from the bathroom, before locking herself in her room. Sitting down on her bed, she started applying bandages and balms to the various wounds inflicted on her by her other self, all the while stewing over what had happened. She still couldn't get over how a version of herself could be so monstrously coldhearted. Sure, she would readily admit that she wasn't the most generous or kind person around, but actually considering letting a member of her own family die just because of annoyance? That was a step too far.

"Hmm, maybe I should start being nicer to Dib? Just to reassure myself I'd never sink that low?" Gaz mused, rubbing her chin in thought, "…Meh, I'll think about it. As long as he knows when to shut up."

That settled, Gaz took something for the pain and laid down to sleep, determined to begin forgetting that this whole day had ever happened.

**Author's Note:**

> And there we go, done and done. As usual, this was a lot harder to write than I originally envisioned it, so I hope you all enjoyed the end result.
> 
> Anyone who's read my work knows that I'm no fan of Gaz; she's a badass, sure, but she's also a misanthrope with little-to-no redeeming characteristics. Or at least, that's how she was on the show. The comics have done a good job of humanizing her and fleshing out her character, and of course there's the matter of Enter the Florpus, which made her a lot more likable. All of which was the cornerstone of this plot bunny, contrasting those two iterations of the character.
> 
> So, a note for going forward — in New Adventures and any karma fics, assume I'm using the show portrayal of Gaz. For anything else, it'll probably be the comic version.
> 
> That's all for now. Please review!


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